Monday, December 29, 2008

Time Flies

Happy Holidays from Siena. Since the Cornwell car was traveling this way, the dogs and I hopped in and came along for a little change of scenery.

Having been reminded on my first venture out in the city with the dogs on leashes that they are really WILD animals who have not had nearly enough time off the mountain and whose owners have been terribly negligent in training them, we have been spending quite a lot of time in the hotel room. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm rather enjoying the excuse of not being strong enough to walk my own dogs to spend my days in accommodations in which: 1. I don't have to carry wood or any wood product to supply the heat, 2. the water comes plentifully from fixtures intended to deliver water, as opposed to say the ceiling, no neighbor is competing with us for it, and it's hot ON DEMAND 3.there is one of those little black boxes at which one can stare for hours while knitting and not have to think about, well, anything (I'm pretty sure it's called a tv), and 4. someone else is vacuuming up the dog hair. All and all, it's really about as big of a change of scene as a Maberga girl could ask for.

As I sit here watching way more CNN than any one would need in a year, let alone 2 days, I'm thinking a lot about the passage of time. It is the new year and all, so it seems natural. And Siena is as good of a backdrop as I could ask for.

Let's time travel, shall we?

Go with me to the spring of 1989, place - Northfield, Minnesota.

I'm a sophomore in college. I've just declared economics as my major (don't ask). I've also just decided that I need some time "away". Try to forget the fact that I'm a very privileged 19 year old at a wonderful university with amazing people and experiences to stimulate me every time I turn around. What exactly I needed to "get away" from escapes my memory. Anyway, I go home for summer holiday from school and announce, make that, declare that I want to spend the fall semester in Italy. Being the supportive, cool folks they are, mom and dad say yes.

In August I find myself sporting a pair of overalls and a Carleton sweatshirt, carrying way too much luggage off a train and getting into a Fiat 500 heading to my new temporary home...in Siena.

As I sit watching Obama accept the nomination for the 100th time on the 100th replay of the recap of 2008 I start wandering into the passage of time.

I'm not worried about getting old. I like to think that I'm embracing it. If fact, it fascinates and intrigues me. Who was that girl who got off the train and walked the streets of this city, being "cultured" through deep discussions (whose topics also escape me now) over cappuccinos and cigarettes, seeing art and architecture that I know she wasn't comprehending?

Last night I walked the same streets looking for a restaurant with my husband (of 13 years I met while teaching kindergarten in Denver) and visiting pal Jacopo (who we met on a Greek island almost a decade ago) I thought to myself "that girl was NOT me."

But, now while writing on this 3rd blog-iversary OliveKnitting, I know she was of course me. I think about the the situations I find myself in, the situations I throw myself into, the ways I deal with them, the way I dress for them and I realize the same girl who got off that train is the same one who now gets out of bed every day .... still trying to make sense of the world around her. Maybe the difference now is that I think also about how TIME FLIES.